A New Administration; or the State Quacks Administring: 1783

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Copper plate with caricature of the Coalition between Fox and Lord North. Satire on the coalition of Fox, depicted as a fox lifting the skirts of the distressed Britannia so that North can administer an enema with a large syringe. The Whig Charles James Fox managed to remove the previous prime minister - the Earl of Shelburne - by his pragmatic alliance with the Tory Lord North under the Duke of Portland as Prime Minister. He proclaimed his manouvre a blow for parliamentary power over the king, who in turn declared it was "the most daring and unprincipled act that the annals of this kingdom ever produced". But the ministry lasted only from April 2 to December 19 and lost Fox many allies and much trust for his opportunistic adoption of Tory policies.